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This article discusses the reasons and discourses adopted by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (Hong Kong SAR Government), with Mr Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief Executive, in preparing young people to become more mature and responsible. In the Hong Kong context this means they should be willing to fulfil community obligations and opt for consultation rather than confrontation should individual or community rights be sought. Confucianism, named after Confucius (551‐479 BCE), has been and still is a vast and complicated system of philosophies, morals, rituals, and ideas, which for well over 2,000 years has informed and inspired the thinking and practice of countless people in Chinese societies and Asian countries in all important areas, including the economy and the polity (Tu, 1998a; Berthrong & Berthrong, 2000; Yao, 2002). Put simply, the goal of Confucian life is to create a peaceful world, with its ethical emphasis placed on the cultivation of the self and the promotion of harmonious and respectful relations with other people in different spheres of human activities.

In this chapter, I reflect on my research on expatriation and cross-cultural interactions over the past four decades. I have characterized it as voyages of self-discovery, as my research questions have been framed by my own experiences in growing up in a bicultural environment in Hong Kong and subsequent relocation to North America. My research findings have helped me understand the what, why, and how of my encounters and observations in the context of international assignments and cross-cultural encounters. The chapter then focuses on my 1981 publication that presented a contingency paradigm of selection and training that generated substantial interest in expatriation. While the contingency paradigm is essentially valid today, I outline four developments that have taken place since then – war for talent, greying of the labor force, rise of emerging markets, and need for global orientation – that necessitate new perspectives in understanding human resource management in the global context. I then allude to how I would rewrite my 1981 paper differently in light of these changes.

Many of the survey design issues raised by Tung (2000) are revisited in the context of Guilding and Kirman's (1998) study. While several practical issues are raised, underlying this rejoinder is the message that when conducting questionnaire survey research, issues can arise that require the researcher to exercise a degree of subjective judgement. While the researcher should always attempt to observe the types of practice noted by Tung, the application of these practices can be compromised when one turns to the reality of operationalisalion in the context of a particular research question(s) and a particular sample.

This paper aims to bridge the literatures on social enterprises and human resource management to examine the recruitment practices, specifically the recruitment channels, which are used by social enterprises to attract workers and how and why these practices differ from those used by more mainstream organizations.

It uses the cross-case analysis approach and evaluates four different social enterprises in Thailand. These four social enterprises are located in different industries, including food and beverages, textiles and garments, printing and publishing and entertainment and media. The case study evidence draws on semi-structured interviews, field visits and observations and a review of archival documents and Web resources.

Through these case studies, this paper proposes that social enterprises typically use sub-stream or alternative recruitment channels that differ from those used by more mainstream organizations to attract qualified workers whose beliefs and attitudes are consistent with the objectives of social enterprises, to avoid severe competition in the labor market and to foster the internal development of their employees over time.

One limitation of this research is its methodology. Because this research is based on case studies of four social enterprises across industries in Thailand, it does not claim generalizability to all social enterprises and their recruitment channels. Rather, the results of this research should lead to further discussion of how and why social enterprises are able to recruit qualified candidates, solve financial and human resources constraints and survive severe competition among organizations in the labor market.

This paper also provides managerial implications for human resources practitioners, founders and top managers of social enterprises, not only in Thailand but also in other countries across the globe. First, these human resources practitioners, founders and top managers can use sub-stream or alternative recruitment channels to recruit employees to their social enterprises because these channels should help them attract qualified candidates whose beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, skills, experience and work performance fit with the philosophy and objectives of social enterprises. Second, they can use mainstream recruitment channels only when they have sufficient budgets to support this activity because these channels are expensive and may not support the dual missions of social enterprises. Third, they may attempt to search for an alternative source of potential employees, such as the blind and the disabled, to alleviate the problem of skill shortages at the occupational level and at the national level as a whole.

This paper provides policy implications for the government of Thailand and the governments of several other emerging market economies where the problem of skill shortages is particularly severe. Specifically, these governments should pay attention to solving the problem of occupational-level skill shortages to alleviate severe competition among several types of organizations in the labor market.

First, the findings in this paper extend the literature on human resource management, specifically on recruitment and selection practices, regarding how and why small and emerging organizations such as social enterprises can compete with mainstream organizations to survive severe competition in the labor market. Second, this paper contributes to the literature on social enterprises, specifically regarding how social enterprises resolve the issue of financial constraints to access skilled employees whose identification is consistent with the objectives of social enterprises. Finally, social enterprises in the under-researched country of Thailand are frequently overlooked in the literature. The four social enterprises in this paper are located in a variety of industries, including food and beverages (the Doi Tung Development Project and Doi Chaang Coffee), textiles and garments (the Doi Tung Development Project), printing and publishing (Butterfly Publishing House) and entertainment and media (Payai Creation). These industries, especially the printing and publishing industry and the entertainment and media industry, are also understudied in the literature on human resource management.

The steel bars account for a high percentage of material costs for the current construction projects. At the present time, most of the construction projects for the factories of thin‐film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT‐LCD) complete the transactions of steel bars when the suppliers ship the steel bars to the temporary storage/processing sites. This paper applies the buy‐in concept in the Theory of Constraint (TOC) on the supply chain of steel bars. In this study, suppliers are required to establish warehouses at the construction sites and complete the transactions when the formed and processed steel bars are shipped into the factory sites. The aim is to find a win‐win solution to meet with the expectations from constructors as they hope that there is no need to build up inventories but supply is ready at any time. Also, this paper compares and analyzes the traditional supply/inventory model of steel bars and the Demand‐Pull (D‐P) model under the TOC framework. It is proved that Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) in the D‐P model is able to more effectively manage steel bars as a material.

Die Empfehlung an die Verantwortlichen in Fremdenverkehrsorten und ‐regionen, zur Abwendung weiterer Marktanteilsverluste ein innovatives Marketing zu betreiben, stösst häufig auf Ablehnung oder Resignation bei den Betroffenen. Es wird eingewendet, die von der Betriebswirtschaftslehre für Konsumgüterproduzenten entwickelten Marketinginstrumente könnten nicht einfach auf den Fremdenverkehr übertragen werden. Die Fremdenver‐kehrsstellen (Verkehrsämter, Kurverwaltungen, regionale Fremdenverkehrsverbände) hätten z.B. keinen Einfluss auf die Produktgestaltung der örtlichen Leistungsträger, sie würden nur eine koordinierende Funktion ausüben und allenfalls Werbung für den Fremdenverkehrsort oder die ‐region betreiben. Tatsächlich ist der Bereich des Binnen‐marketings (auch intramulares Marketing oder Innenmarketing genannt) im Fremdenverkehr durch besondere Schwierigkeiten gekennzeichnet. Das “Produkt” Fremdenverkehrsort oder Kurort umfasst stets ein ganzes Leistungsbündel, für dessen Herstellung viele “Produzenten” verantwortlich sind. Die Besonderheiten des Marketings im Fremdenverkehr ergeben sich deshalb vor allem aus der Tatsache, dass Marketing in Erholungsorten, Kurorten, Heilbädern und Städten sowie in Fremdenverkehrsregionen in der Praxis stets Gerne in schaftsmarketing ist. Um erfolgreiches Marketing nach aussen betreiben zu können, er‐weist es sich im Fremdenverkehr als notwendig, zuerst eine Konzeption für das Marketing nach innen (Binnenmarketing) zu erarbeiten. Für jeden Fremdenverkehrsort gilt: “Marketing begins at home”.

Eleostearic acid is the backbone of tung oil, the manufacturer, uses, potential and chemical structure of which have been reviewed in earlier years. Eleostearic acid is a conjugated, positional isomer of linolenic acid, with three double bonds and is a very reactive acid, even more so than linolenic acid —

The oil from the fruit of Parinari anamense Hance, a tree indigenous of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is a practical substitute for tung oil for making quality printing inks. In Thailand, the tree grows wild in the north‐eastern part of the country, where the ripened fruits that fall down dry to a hard nut. The nuts are collected by the natives and sold to the processing factory where the oil is extracted from the kernels by pressing.

This interview was conducted with Dr Rosalie Tung. Dr Tung gives her insight about her career.

Interview was conducted via Skype. There was a somewhat systematical approach to the Q&A interview.

Dr Tung briefly goes through her academic career regarding cross-cultural studies and how her life experiences shaped her passion for the subject.

This was a one-on-one interview via Skype.